Katie's adventures as she serves the Lord and the people in CA for the next 18 months!

Monday, January 5, 2015

I know God places me in the exact place to help those in need

OH MY WORD! I know I haven’t written yall anything since LAST YEAR and I am soooooo sorry!!!! (go ahead..roll your eyes and fake laugh…just like we had to do about a million times this week when we’d hear that joke haha). I do hope everyone had a fantastic New Year’s though.

You should check out this video. It’ll give ya a good laugh and even some inspiration.

Lets dive into the week real quick like.

Monday- it was the first time in like 7 months that we didn’t have to carpool with other sisters so it was a tad bit lonely and much more quite but we got done with pday stuff with 2 hours to spare so we were in heaven just gettin’ to sit and relax hahah. Other than that there wasn’t too much special about that day.

Tuesday- IT SNOWED!!!!!!! I’m not even joking. It totally did. It started with cute little flurries then lasted a few hours. It never stuck, but it was still really pretty and made sister Van Heel happy, so I was happy. Some members in the ward had heard me talk about loving sparkling grape juice so they called us over to their house and gave us some for NYE :) While sitting in a meeting I had a feeling that we needed to try harder to get in contact with some of the recent converts in the area. We got home and between me bringing it up and Van Heel following the spirit in knowing what to say in the messages TWO of them responded to us for the 1st time since I’ve been here. We were so happy we did that.

Happy NYE!

Wednesday- one of the less actives we teach taught US a lesson while visiting her. She talked about how this year she was going to be focused on “positive progression” and it taught me a lot. We just need to positive about the way things are going, even if we are falling behind a little. This was deff an answer to prayers since up til that point I had been struggling a lot for a few days with feeling like I was falling backwards in progression rather than forward and as a missionary, that really was taking a tole on me. So she really helped me see that we have to be find the little victories and let that be enough :) it also took me back to a talk I had read a while ago that said something like this :

‘Peter, when sinking into the water didn’t go “No thank you, I will swim to the shore. I sank myself, so I must save myself.” That’s just ridiculous. Yet, sometimes we do that.’ We, at times, spiritually drown ourselves because we aren’t willing to seek out loving and strong arms to rescue us. We just have to allow the Savior to help us.

Thursday- We went to help out a little old lady in the ward with some house work that morning and upon arriving she was surprised because I guess there was a miscommunication and she thought we weren’t coming til Saturday. Well, after a little bit of talking to us she just started to cry and cry about all the things happening in her life: her husband being in the hospital for like 3 weeks now, her best friend passing away a few days prior, just so much. During all the crying she goes “I know that Heavenly Father sent you here to me today. I just needed to cry. Thank you for listening.” I was a mess. It was so sweet. I really do know that God puts us, His servants, where we need to be and when we need to be there. He knows the needs of allllll His children and will do whatever to give them the comfort they need.

OH. My camera broke this day, super sad and depressing. No worries, it still takes pictures I just can’t see them on the broken screen haha. Good thing I don’t have tooooooo much longer. I do wish it coulda just hung on a few more months though -_- I’m not bitter or anything…no..never.

Friday- we went to the funeral of the friend I previously talked about by request of our bishop here. We had randomly visited her two weeks before she passed away because no one had seen her at church recently. She came the Sunday before she got in a wreck and passed. Crazy stuff. Anyways, because I didn’t know her very well I figured the funeral wouldn’t be too hard for me. Boy, was I wrong. As soon as it started all I could think about was the fact that pops passed away a few months ago since me being out on my mission and how I wasn’t there for his funeral. I felt the pain my family surly had felt that day. I got frustrated with myself at one point because I was a mess and was thinking ‘WHY?! You’re a missionary. You know Gods loving plan for us. You know where he is.” So I prayed that I’d get some help…a few mins later my prayer was answered through music. He had always been able to touch me through music. I love it. We sang “I believe in Christ” and “How Great Thou Art” and I realized I have a Savior who made it possible for me to be with my family for forever and that I needed to just be happy. So I was. :) The day was made a ton better when we were able to go down the hill for something and got CHICKFILA BABY!!!!!!!! Oh and at dinner that night the little 3 year old boy was trying so hard to pull me down and kiss me after hugging me hahahah. The mom was cracking up. Dang.

Saturday- I was able to get a priesthood blessing that morning which was exactly that. A blessing. I seriously love the priesthood. I know that through that power Heavenly Father can speak to us. It truly helped liven up my spirits!

FUNNY: we were visiting this one couple that goes to our church and the lady (who has dementia) randomly goes “Well, I believe in the Holy Spirit and in the holy Catholic Church!!” her husband was like “Charlotte, WE’RE MORMON!” hahahahhaa. It was beautiful.

Sunday- A little 6 year old passed notes with me during church. It was probably the cutest thing ever. See. A few weeks ago I was having problems with old men hitting on me, this week it was the underaggeeddd hahah.Sunday school which gave us a good laugh. Something I did get out of church though: a lot of times we are so eager/excited to get to our goal that we miss the beauty in the path traveled to get there. So much refining happens IN the process.

Lets just hope next week the mid-aged don’t start up haha. Bob Marley was quoted in

Things are going well. I sat by a really good friend today while attempting to write this which then led to a ton of distracting and not focusing, so if this was all sorta jumbled…I’m sorry. Haha. Just know that I love yall. Miss yall. And i’m doin’ just fine!!!! Stay golden, pony boys. Oh yeah, and for those not priviledged enough to already see these, heres our Christmas pictures from this year ;p